How to Setup Amazon Kindle on Your Smartphone or Tablet

Kindle is one of the hottest apps for reading all your ebooks and digital comics – so much so that it’s grown from a singular app into Amazon’s own line of tablets. However, not everyone wants to use Amazon’s proprietary hardware, and if you’re here, then you’re one of those people. You love the convenience, but you want to read on your iPad, your Android phone, or anything inbetween. Well, strap in, because we’re going to walk you through how!

Installing the Kindle App

To start, download the Kindle app to youriOS, Android, or Windows device from its respective appstore. Once you start downloading, you can proceed with the next step while it installs.

Next, if haven’t already, you need to register here for a free Amazon account. It’s required, but completely free. I recommend doing so on a computer, since it’s far easier to type, though there are options on mobile to rectify that.

Now, you’re going to want to have that account name and password on hand. You can write it all down on a piece of paper while setting up your Kindle App, but be sure to save it securely with a password manager like KeePass as soon you’re able.

Next, you’ll be prompted to register or login – choose the login option, and enter the email you registered the account with and your password. Only enter these in the official Kindle app.

If you’ve already purchased eBooks or comics through Amazon, they will automatically appear in your library and will be ready to download. Simple enough, right?

When it comes to purchasing and downloading new books for your library, things get a little trickier. On an Amazon Kindle device, you can just buy within the app, but with other devices, you have to use a slightly more elaborate method.

Purchasing & Downloading eBooks

First, open the browser either in your phone or on your personal computer.

For the sake of practice, grab a free sample of any book that looks interesting to you. The free sample button will appear right below the purchase options.

Now, once you’ve “purchased” the free sample, it will ask you if you’d like Kindle to start downloading the sample to one of your devices. Select the device you want from the menu.

After it’s downloaded to your device, just open the Kindle app and look in your cloud library – it will be right there, ready to read. If it doesn’t download but still appears in your library, a quick tap will start it downloading.

Congratulations! You have now successfully added the free sample to your library, plus you now know how to directly download any eBook you buy so you can get to reading right away.

+ Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service where you pay $9.99 USD a month, and receive access to a library of over one million eBooks and comics.

+ Audible Narration is a feature offered by Amazon for all Kindle users, often for around $1.99 to $3.99 USD on top of the price of the book itself. Seeing as Amazon owns both Kindle and Audible, it’s a literary match made in heaven.

+ Prime Reading is, effectively, an online library for Amazon Prime subscribers. Along with all the other Amazon Prime benefits, for $10.99 USD a month, you can borrow up to ten different books, magazines, and comics at a time from a somewhat more limited library than Kindle Unlimited. The benefit of Prime Reading is that it includes Audible Narrations for free for books in the Prime Reading library. You also aren’t on any time limit for the books you borrow from Prime Reading – you just have to swap one of the books out if you hit the ten item limit. You can even swap back if you want to continue a book, and in my experience, Kindle tends to even remember where you were last at in the book.

+ Kindle Lending Library is an auxillary feature on top of Prime Reading. Along with your Prime Reading library, you can borrow one Lending Library book per-month, and can only have one book out at a time. The selection is limited mostly to novels, but it’s a nice bonus on top of your Amazon Prime subscription alongside the Prime Reading library.

And with that, you’re good to go! Welcome to the age of reading digitally.

Elijah is a man who can't stop talking about games, geeky things, and to the chagrin of his colleagues, horrible puns. He's been working as a game journalist for several years now, and in addition to Appolicious, His other work can be found at GameCritics.com, I Need Diverse Games, and The Unabridged Gamer on YouTube. When not reviewing games, you'll probably find him ranting on Twitter, writing, or replaying Dead Space 2 for the zillionth time.